He held out his hand. She stared at it a beat too long, and his heart clenched so hard in his chest he feared he might be having a heart attack. He kept his hand out, waiting. With great reluctance, she put her smaller one in his. He closed his fingers around hers and pulled her to him as they moved together back to his table.
He pulled out a chair for her and then sank down into the one closest, dragging her chair right up to his, arms caging her in just in case she tried to escape him. “That woman …”
“A former lover?”
The words bit deep. Fuck. Fuck. What the hell could he say but the truth? “It was a fuckin’ one-night stand. Stupid of me hooking up with a shark, but I was having a pity party because the doc told me at least six more months on playboy duty and I hated it.”
“So, fucking Meredith Benson, the hottest actress in Hollywood right now, was part of your little pity party.”
He raked his fingers through his hair. The hurt in her voice nearly destroyed him. He didn’t want to see himself through her eyes. He looked bad. Maybe he was. Hell, he didn’t even know anymore. It all came back to that game that never seemed to go away. “Baby, I know that hurt, to see that on the dance floor—”
“That? You mean you kissing another woman? Not just kissing her, but your tongue down her throat?”
He shook his head. “My tongue was nowhere near her throat. She kissed me, Sasha. For revenge. Because Meredith likes to dump her lovers publicly for the publicity. She craves the camera and the drama. She thrives on it. This was all about revenge. She set me up with the paparazzi, and like an idiot, I fell for it. I’m sorry. I know this is going to be a firestorm and every time you go into a grocery store or see a magazine, or watch television, it’s going to be in your face, but you have to know, I wasn’t a party to that.”
“Giovanni.” She sounded tired, and his gut tightened in alarm. “Your world is so far removed from mine. These games you all play so casually are beyond me. I don’t understand them, and quite frankly I don’t want to. Maybe you weren’t kissing her back. Maybe that dance with your bodies all over each other didn’t mean anything to you, but it did to me. I suppose if I was a woman in your world, I’d just grab Aaron and dance with him like that. Kiss him like that and smile for the cameras. It isn’t my world no matter how much I want to fit in for you.”
“Don’t. Baby, don’t do this. You’re tired and scared and I understand that. I do. But you know damn well I didn’t betray you. I’ve had a lot of one-night stands. I can’t pretend I didn’t. Hell, I think they’re all pretty much documented. You hear lies. Am I lying when I tell you I love you and I’m not capable of being unfaithful? I’m not. I told you about my life. I need you, Sasha. You think your brother needs you, and he does, but not like I do. Not in the same way. I’ve never had one fucking thing for myself. I’ve done my duty and played my part for the family. You’re everything to me. Don’t let a vindictive, petty woman rip us apart.”
He hated the tears turning that beautiful sapphire to liquid. He caught her chin and leaned in to brush her mouth with his.
She jerked back. “You still have her lipstick on your mouth, Giovanni.”
The accusation was harsh, but he wasn’t about to let that stop him. “Wipe it the fuck off, Sasha. Right now. Use the water in the glass if you have to, but get her off me.”
Sasha responded to the command in his voice. She dipped a napkin into the water and rubbed off Meredith’s lipstick. He despised the woman all the more. Leaving the evidence behind had obviously been part of her plan. He’d tried to wipe it off, but apparently, she’d made certain it was smeared everywhere.
“Thank you. I want you to take a deep breath and really look at me, Sasha. I could never give you up. I don’t care what the circumstances were, I couldn’t. If you were dancing with Aaron and he kissed you, I might go to jail for beating the holy hell out of him, but you, you I love, I wouldn’t touch you, nor would I break up with you. I’d try to figure out what I wasn’t giving you that you needed. Meredith Benson was looking to fuck me up with you. Don’t let her succeed.”
Sasha hung her head, shaking it. “I have to step back, catch my breath and figure out what I’m doing. I need Sandlin safe, but I also need to think about us realistically. I can’t do that when I’m with you. I can’t do that with people around us every second. I want to go back to my apartment by myself and really have time to think.”
He shook his head. “It isn’t safe and you know it.”
“Then make it safe. Surround the place with a million guards. You have to give this to me, Giovanni. I need to figure out what I’m doing. If you can’t give this to me, I’m going to say we’re done, because right now, I can’t get rid of the image of you and that woman kissing on the dance floor with all those cameras going off. It’s burned into my mind for all time.” She held up her hand when he would have protested. “It doesn’t matter that it was all about revenge. It’s your world. It’s how you live. She represents a good many of the people populating your world. I need space, and I’m asking for it.”
He knew he had no choice. The only play he had left was to comply. That gave him a night to fuck up Meredith’s life even more than she could ever conceive of him doing. What was the use of having billions of dollars at one’s disposal if they couldn’t ruin an enemy? He hated that Meredith had hurt Sasha, especially on the heels of someone trying to kill her brother. He brought her hand to his mouth, kissed her knuckles and conceded with a nod.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The problem with pity parties and crying one’s eyes out, Sasha decided, wasn’t the red, puffy face or the swollen eyes. It was the headache. She didn’t get headaches as a rule and tended to be a baby when she got one. She took a couple of over-the-counter pills that did nothing for it and lay down with every curtain pulled. She’d pulled them to keep out anyone like a nasty stalker who probably was lying in wait with binoculars. She wasn’t giving him or anyone else a show.
The paparazzi could be out there, too, hoping to catch her reaction to Meredith Benson kissing her man so they could put it in front of the world. She didn’t like crying in front of anyone and she wasn’t going to do it where her picture could be taken for display on a rack in a grocery store.
Still, she was too restless to lie down. She was up and pacing through the small apartment, making a slow circuit, trying not to think about anything because her head was so crowded with everything that had been happening she couldn’t think straight. After an hour of a wild storm of weeping, fifteen minutes of trying to sleep and another fifteen of pacing, she threw herself into a chair and tried to sort through things the way she always did—she made a list.
Compiling problems was ridiculous, but the way her mind worked, she needed to see them, figure out the most pressing and how best to handle it. Number one always, always, was her brother. His care and safety. The Hendrick Center was the best that she could find, and the surgeon was renowned. She wanted Sandlin to stay there. The moment Goodman had made noises about removing him for the safety of the other patients, she’d panicked and couldn’t hear much after that.
Granted, she’d wanted to break down and cry right then. It had been such a relief to have Giovanni and Stefano talk to Goodman in their calm, quiet voices. She could listen to those voices all day. They sounded reassuring and safe. As long as Giovanni was around, she felt Sandlin was safe. He had provided the extra security and the bodyguard. Her stalker had still gotten in—and she was certain he had been the one to rig the explosives, although Giovanni had pointed out to Goodman that they didn’t know that for certain yet.